Archive for the 'Computer and Internet' Category

 

Building Your Mailing List with Downloads

Jul 04, 2008 in Computer and Internet

A mailing list is the lifeblood of your online business. The old adage "the money is in the list" cannot be true enough -- if you had a targeted list of prospects to contact each time you have a new product, you will be able to save a lot of effort by marketing it to your existing list of targeted prospects.

You can actually build up a targeted list of prospects that are interested in your products by offering a relevant download on your website. For example, let's take a look at a very good example -- apple.com. When you download the free iTunes and Quicktime software from their site, they will ask you to fill in an optional name and email form so that they can send you offers on songs that you can purchase via -- guess where -- iTunes!3d_065

In reality, you do not need to offer such a "heavyweight" download such as a full-feature software like iTunes.  You can attract prospects equally well with some quality freebies such as a simple report, a free wallpaper, and so on. The important thing is that your download offers enough value for the prospect to be willing to give away his/her own email address to get it.

However, slapping together a simple download and putting a link on your website won't be enough to attract qualified prospects. You will have to do some homework in order for your lead-generating mechanism to work well for you.

First of all, you must place your download form prominently on your website. Preferably, dedicate a page to it and link to that page from every other page of your website. That way, there is no way your visitors cannot find the download page, and when they do, you'll get some of them converted into your prospects!

Also, you have to put a little effort into promoting your download. Explain and elaborate on the values of the download, and why your visitors should download it. You might think why would anyone want to pass on a freebie, but most of your visitors would be too lazy to take the effort to download it because most of their downloads just sit on the harddisk collecting virtual dust. It is hence important to show your visitors why they should download your freebie.

Tags:

Improve Usability of Your Website

Jul 04, 2008 in Computer and Internet

No matter how brilliant your website design is, if it is hard to reach the content of your site then your site is as useful as an empty shell. Here are some tips to improve the usability of your website to ensure it serves its functions optimally.

The first method is to make sure the typography of your content is suitable. If you have large blocks of text, make sure to use CSS to space out the lines accordingly. The longer a single line of text is, the greater the line-height of each line should be. Also, make sure the font size of your text is big enough to read easily. Some sites have 10-pixel-tall text in Verdana font; while that may look neat and tidy, you have to really strain your eyes to read the actual text. 3d_077

Make it easy for visitors to find content that they want on your site. If you have thousands of articles on your site and a certain visitor wants to find one single article from that pile, you have to provide a feasible means to enable visitors to do that without hassle. Be it an SQL-driven database search engine or just a glossary or index of articles that you have, providing such a feature will make sure your visitors can use your site with ease.

Ensure that your site loads fast if you do not want to lose visitors. Most internet users will leave a website if it doesn't load completely within 15 seconds, so make sure the crиme de la crиme of your website is delivered to the visitors as soon as possible to retain their attention.

Last of all, test each and every link on your site before it goes online. There is nothing more effective in tarnishing your professional image than broken links, so be very careful about that.

Tags:

The 7 Steps to Promoting Your RSS Feeds

Jun 30, 2008 in Computer and Internet

RSS gets 100% of your content delivered, but it's no good if no one subscribes to your feeds.

So your first order of business after planning and creating your feeds has to be promoting them to your visitors.

The only problem is that most internet users still don't know what RSS is, so you do have your work cut out for. But using the system outlined below you shouldn't have any problems. Actually, after implementing this system, you should be achieving better results than the majority of publishers out there.

1. HOW RSS FEEDS ARE GENERALLY PROMOTED

RSS feeds are generally promoted using the orange XML or RSS buttons, and often also with buttons that enable visitors to subscribe directly to the feed with their RSS reader.

Usually, if clicking on the RSS button, the visitor only sees a lot of confusing XML code. They in fact need to copy & paste the link in to their RSS reader. But since most still don't know what RSS is, using this approach will only waste potential subscribers.

To achieve success, you'll need a different approach.

A] Create an RSS presentation page, on which you explain:
- What RSS is
- How the visitor will benefit from using RSS
- Where they can get a free RSS aggregator (recommend one yourself!)
- How they can install it (provide step-by-step instructions)
- How they can subscribe to your RSS feeds
- Why they should subscribe to your own RSS feeds

Then, on this same page, include the links to all of your RSS feeds.

In addition to the standard orange RSS button, also include direct links for subscriptions via MyYahoo! (get it here http://my.yahoo.com/s/button.html) and other relevant services, such as Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com). There are about 5 RSS readers you should cover with these buttons.

B] Now promote this RSS presentation page as much as you can using all of your available channels.

2. LOCATION AND CONTENT

It's all about location, just like with the subscription box for your e-zine. If they don't see it, they won't subscribe. And if you don't motivate them enough to check-it out, they'll just ignore it.

A] Promote your RSS feeds directly below your e-zine subscription box, and always "above the fold". Promote your RSS presentation page (telling your visitors that's where they can subscribe to your feeds) on the most prominent locations of your site.

B] If you're publishing more than one RSS feed, but rather a couple of focused topic feeds, promote each of them next to their topics. For instance, if you're publishing an RSS feed on E-mail Marketing, promote the RSS feed at the top of the topic home page, and in every E-mail Marketing article you publish. These links should actually be direct subscriptions links to the feeds.

Use this service to cover all of the important readers using just one simple button: http://www.methodize.org/quicksub/

C] Promote your RSS feeds in all of your e-mail messages and e-zine issues.

D] As for the content, don't just say "Subscribe to receive news from my site", but rather prepare compelling copy to specifically show your visitors why they need to subscribe to your content in the first place and why they should subscribe specifically to your RSS feeds.

3. ENABLE AUTO-DISCOVERY

Some internet browsers, such as Firefox, make it easy for their users to subscribe to RSS feeds. The browser actually asks the user if he wants to subscribe to the feeds the browser finds on the site the user is currently on.

Yes, this is even more powerful than your e-mail subscription form, since the browser in a way "pushes" the user with your RSS feed subscription.

But in order for the browser to do this, you need to help it out to find your RSS feed.

Just include the following piece of HTML code in the section of your webpages and you'll be all set:

There are many more techniques and opportunities available to you, from "direct subscribe" links to actually using opt-in forms, but these 7 steps should get you started in the shortest time possible, and help you achieve a better visitor-to-RSS-subscriber conversion rate than the huge majority of sites are achieving today.

Advertising by:  1 Июля - День RSS в Рунете / On July, 1st - Day RSS in a Runet

Tags:

The Technology Of DVD Media

Jun 26, 2008 in Computer and Internet

A Digital Video Disc or DVD is one of the most popular forms of storage media nowadays. It is an optical disc and mainly used to store videos. However, data in any form can be stored on a DVD. The dimensions of a DVD are generally the same as a common compact disc but the amount of data that can be stored is six times greater.

The different variations of DVD are based on the way data is being stored on it. A DVD-ROM has pre-written data that can only be read. A DVD+R and DVD-R are the ones on which the data can be written only once; and on a DVD+RW the data can be written and erased more than once. The lasers used to read DVDs are typically of 650 nm wavelength.

The terms DVD-Audio and DVD-Video discs are DVDs with suitably structured and formatted audio and video content respectively. Other types of DVDs are called DVD-data discs.

The term `DVD` is used for an unofficial full form `digital video disc`. However, it was officially announced that it stands for `digital versatile disc`. 24b

A typical DVD has a 4.7 GB storage capacity. These discs are one sided and single layered i.e. the data is stored only on one side of the disc and only at one level. The size is enough for a high quality 133-minute movie. The double sided and dual layered DVDs can store about 17 GB of data in any form. The capacity dwarfs a compact disc easily.

The writing speeds on a DVD vary from 1350 KB/s (1 x) to 26 MB/s (18 x to 20 x). For a CD, the speed 1 x means only 153.6 KB/s.

Initially, the burning or the duplication of DVD was an expensive work and required skilled persons to do it. Today, the process of writing on a DVD has become a piece of cake and any one with a little knowledge of computers can do it at a click of the mouse. Producing DVDs requires certain authentication. Also, certain processes and rules are needed to be followed to handle their production. Present day markets are full of illegal and fake DVDs. Especially in Asia, Africa and Brazil. So, certain security measures are applied to check this illegal business. Copy prevention techniques are used that prevents illegal replicating of the original disk.

A DVD-Video is standard for storage of video content on the media. Typically the format in which video is stored in the DVDs is MPEG-2, 16:9 aspect ratio videos. The resolution used are 720*576 (PAL) or 720*480 (NTSC) at 25 or 29.97 FPS. The audio on the disc is stored in DTS (Digital Theatre System) or AC-3 (Dolby Digital) formats. However, a number of other resolutions and formats are also supported. Other features like selectable language in subtitles, menus, multiple audio tracks and more than one camera angle is also supported by DVD-Video.

The DVD-Audio format is used to deliver high-quality audio content. A number of channel configuration choices (like from mono to 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound) at a number of sampling frequencies are offered by the DVD-Audio. The higher storage capacities enable it to store a considerable higher amount of music or a much higher audio quality.

Although the DVD-Audio has higher technical specifications, the debate on whether the audio enhancements that are being included are actually distinguishable or not in a typical listening environment is still on.

There are a number of possible successors to the DVD. The strongest being the Blu-Ray Disc. Others are Maxell`s HVD (Holographic Versatile Disc) and the 3D optical storage discs that are being developed actively.

Tags:

UK Small Businesses and Internet Security

Jun 26, 2008 in Computer and Internet

We live in times which are greatly influenced by technology, whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is for you to decide but, the fact is that we must learn to live with it and make it work to our advantage. Small business everywhere are trying to incorporate their products and services on small business websites due to the fact that the Web is a huge gateway which offers the potential to tap into thousands upon thousands of potential customers.

Realizing the potential of the Web is a first step towards a successful online operation, the second step which is often overlooked is security. Securing your business computers as well as the server which is on 365 days a year allowing your customers to purchase your products or services is of the utmost importance.3
It has been estimated that well over 60% of all businesses would face serious problems and most likely will come to a halt if their computers work malfunction because of technical problems or because of cyber crime. In the UK alone, it has been estimated that online businesses have lost an average of 19% in revenues due to server downtimes and problems related to their computers.

Lets take a look at some of the precautions you can take in order to keep your computers working in optimal condition:

-- When you purchase a computer for business-related activities it is important to also acquire a backup system which will you to restore all of your important information just in case something were to happen.

-- Installing antivirus software is also a great way to protect your data however, this is not the only software necessary when it comes to data protection, you will also need to use an anti-spyware application which will cover you against other threats. Having a physical firewall in your routers as well as a firewall software will decrease the chances of getting your data stolen or your computers hacked.

-- When you create your company's website it is important for you to understand the security settings that are applied to individual folders which hold critical information for instance, the folder within your Web server which holds the admin scripts need to be password protected with an .htaccess file and folder itself needs to have a CHMOD setting of 664, other folders may have a setting of 755. Never set the permissions to 777 unless it is extremely necessary.

Learning a little bit about technology and securing your data will help you avoid revenue losses and headaches.

Tags:

Website Customization: What can we do?

Jun 13, 2008 in Computer and Internet

Nowadays, in this trendy world, people get very uptight when they do not look entirely presentable. This would also be the case in web designing.

Every individual would definitely want their website to look good, if not, to the best they can. Here are a few things we could look out for when wanting to create a professional looking webpage.

Color Schemes and Themes.

When designing, always choose matching colors. An example of a matching color would be to have a dark background, with visible words and designs. With the dark theme, try not to mix too many bright colors into the design. What we should NEVER do, is to mix two very different colors, such as purple and yellow. Now, of course, it would depend on the purpose of the website, but those two colors are too striking for one who wants it to look more professional.

Themes must always suit the company or rather, the organization / etc. If the website was made to cater for a food company, it would be wise to stick to that particular category, rather than to revert to a different theme, such as machinery.

Fonts should be used in regard to the formality of the website. A simple sans-serif font would suffice in most cases. Exceptional cases such as design and art groups might want to use fanciful designs and fonts. Of course, that’s only if you know what you’re doing.

Finally, we must always try to think of our visitors, see the way they see. The resolutions and file sizes of the pictures must not be too large in terms of size. This is to allow maximum compatibility and cater our visitor’s needs.

So, planning is something we should always do, before attempting something.

Ads by Реклама в метро and Рекрутинг в Украине

Tags: ,

The Importance of a Sitemap

Jun 13, 2008 in Computer and Internet

A sitemap is often considered redundant in the process of building a website, and that is indeed the fact if you made a sitemap for the sake of having one. By highlighting the importance of having a well constructed sitemap, you will be able to tailor your own sitemap to suit your own needs.

1) Navigation purposes

A sitemap literally acts as a map of your site. If your visitors browses your site and gets lost between the thousands of pages on your site, they can always refer to your sitemap to see where they are, and navigate through your pages with the utmost ease.

2) Conveying your site's theme

When your visitors load up your sitemap, they will get the gist of your site within a very short amount of time. There is no need to get the "big picture" of your site by reading through each page, and by doing that you will be saving your visitors' time.

3) Site optimization purposes

When you create a sitemap, you are actually creating a single page which contains links to every single page on your site. Imagine what happens when search engine robots hit this page -- they will follow the links on the sitemap and naturally every single page of your site gets indexed by search engines! It is also for this purpose that a link to the sitemap has to be placed prominently on the front page of your website.

4) Organization and relevance

A sitemap enables you to have a complete bird's eye view of your site structure, and whenever you need to add new content or new sections, you will be able to take the existing hierarchy into consideration just by glancing at the sitemap. As a result, you will have a perfectly organized site with everything sorted according to their relevance.

From the above reasons, it is most important to implement a sitemap for website projects with a considerable size. Through this way, you will be able to keep your website easily accesible and neatly organized for everyone.

Ads by Реклама на транспорте and Рекрутинг в Украине

Tags:

How To Have Websites Built For You The Cheap Way

Jun 13, 2008 in Computer and Internet

Normally, if you want to have professional designers custom build your site, you must be prepared to dish out at least a few hundred dollars. All this can change if you know where to find the best deals, the best designs for the lowest price. Here's a rough guide:

First, you must understand that it is a rip off to get companies to design websites for you. Have you ever seen those advertisements in newspaper classified ad sections that offer a 5-page website at $500? These companies are established companies with physical locations, therefore they have to increase the amount they charge to pay off some overheads: office rent, designer's wages, advertising costs and so on. GoldMan_1003

Therefore, it would be wise to find freelance designers who work from home. These people are often working from home so they do not have a high operation cost like that of a company. On the other hand, they will be able to design images with quality similar to those of designers from big companies, so it's a "no-brainer" choice.

However, choose freelancers with care. The best way to do this would be to go to elance.com. There, you can post the abstract of your project and get thousands of freelancers to bid on your project, so you will surely get the best deal. On top of that, you will be able to choose the designers based on their experience, past transactions and ratings, so your value for money is secured.

Another route you can take is to design your website yourself. Think about it, if you only need 5 simple pages to present some simple information, why waste hundreds of dollars for it? Just spend a little time to sit down and do it yourself. You'll be able to design your own sites even if you do not know a single line of HTML code with the help of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programs such as Microsoft Frontpage, Macromedia Dreamweaver and so on.

Ads by Рекламные агентства в киеве and Рекрутинг в Украине

Tags: , ,

Mobile Blogging For Road Warriors

Jun 06, 2008 in Computer and Internet

What is it that attracts people so much?

Blogging is a type of website that lets you post in your comments, suggestions or read about anything being discussed in the blog that catches your interest. It is a way for people to interact, discuss or debate about a certain topic. Think of it as a small group of people debating or sharing comments about a particular topic.

One of the many reasons of why blogs are very popular is that it is subjective and not objective. If you read one blog, you will feel like you know the person who wrote it. It is a form of communication where it does not address itself to a wider audience but instead, it communicates on a person-to-person level. In this way, people are more comfortable posting comments in blogs than in other types of forums.2008-magnum-new-porsche-cayenne-based-1

In a world where communication technology is steadily developing, blogging is one of the best ways of communicating with other people. Today, there are a lot of devices which you can use to create, maintain and update your blogs. One type is mobile blogging or moblogging.

Mobile blogging or moblogging is a type of blogging where it means that you can blog on the go from a portable mobile device like your cellular phone. One great reason to consider mobile blogging is if you want someone to be part of an event without being physically in the event.

One form of mobile blogging or moblogging is through communication devices such as Bluetooth or in your own palm top or pocket PC. There is not much difference between a traditional blog and mobile blog or moblog, the only difference is that in moblog, you can blog on the go.

Today, with the latest mobile phones getting more and more affordable, anyone can buy these devices. You can customize it, take pictures with it and you can also surf the internet with it. Mobile phones are also very useful for blogging. Aside from the fact that you can go online with mobile phones, you can also blog with it while you’re on the go. With it, you can share stories, photos, videos on your blog.

However, to create your own mobile blog, you should first determine if your mobile phone network provider can support online surfing through the internet. You should also determine what kind of phone supports for this kind of service.

Another benefit of moblogging is that if you get inspired to tell a story or you took some great pictures on your road trip and want to share them to the world, you won’t have to wait until you get your hands on your computer and share your thoughts and pictures in the internet. With moblogging, you can blog anytime and anywhere.

To make it much easier for you, you should first make your blog website on your computer. Then, you should register your mobile phone number to activite mobile blogging services. And, you can now post in your comments anywhere you are with your mobile phone.

With mobile blogging, you can even benefit if you are buying a particular thing like a car. For example, you are now in a used car lot, you then can’t decide on what car you want and would want to consult your friend about it. You then take a picture of the cars you like and send them to your blogging website. You then call your friend and told him or her that you need his or her opinion about the cars. You tell them that the pictures are in your blogging site and ask them to take a look at it and tell them what they think.

Moblogging is a very convenient way to communicate with people and also update your blog site even without being physically in front of a desktop computer.

Tags: ,

Article Marketing : Advertising and Income

Jun 05, 2008 in Computer and Internet

Article Directories
Article marketing is the sales technique of placing informative articles on article directory web sites so that they draw attention to the products and services offered by your business web page. The attractive thing about marketing in this way is that the cost is almost nothing. You can write the articles yourself, or you can pay a freelance writer to complete the articles on a subject related to your product or field of expertise. Your name gets attached as the author and there is a link to your web site. This allows for additional exposure of your product through people who read the article and follow the link back to you.

Increasing exposure

Using article marketing increases the exposure of your business, even to global proportions. The tool works very rapidly too, so you can reach customers world wide in a very short time frame. For example, if you have a brand new business or product, you can send out press releases to let potential customers know about the upcoming events. This increases publicity for both the product and for your business website as well. You can illustrate your business potential by submitting articles describing case studies from your client portfolio. Each of these uses of article submission has the effect of promoting your business regardless of the occasion you are publicizing.

Benefits of article submission

The concept of article marketing to increase your sales potential is varied. The cost of article submission is much lower than many other forms of advertising. Many article directories allow you to place articles at no cost. Even if you pay to have a freelance service provider write the article for you, it's still a very inexpensive marketing tool. Article submission is very effective, since they can be resubmitted with fine tuning until you see results in increased web site traffic coming from the article links. Another benefit of article submission is that you see positive results very quickly. No waiting for weeks or months to find out if a tactic is workingMoney (143)

Increasing revenue

Your goal in article marketing, just as with other types of business advertising is to increase the revenue earned from your web site. The nice thing about this type of advertising is that you have very low investment. If you find a particular article or submission location is not bringing in extra revenue, you can try the same article on another free site, or you can update and revise the existing article so that you fine tune it to reach more readers. Unlike a pay per click method, you really are not out much time and very little money with this method.

Making articles effective

You don't have to stop with just one or two articles when you use article marketing. You can submit many articles in order to publicize your business. In fact, by automating submission of articles, you can send off thousands of articles daily. Submitting more articles increases the presence of your business on the internet. The internet has many reputable article directories that accept informative and interesting articles from you. Articles can be on almost any subject, from technical articles about specific products to marketing trends in a region or country.

Tags: ,